If you happen to find yourself on the 3600 block of Aspen Street in Mantua, a few things might catch your attention. Perhaps you’ll notice Miles Mack Recreation Center, a 2.5 acre public space that includes athletic fields and a playground that underwent a $2M renovation a few years back. You might observe that the south side of the block is dominated by three-story homes with parking out front. These affordable homes were built by Pennrose in the late 1990s and are collectively known as “Spencer’s Place.” But the thing that’s perhaps most notable about this block, at least from our perspective, is 3620 Aspen St., which might be the ugliest building in Philadelphia.
What do you even say about this building? With the lack of windows, you’d think the building was being marketed to vampires. The front door, which you’d also expect in the, uh, front of the building, is off to the side, creating another jarring element to the building’s appearance. The stucco on the building’s facade is the color of bile, and the rectangular accents on either side don’t help matters. The faux stone wall in the front is also pretty terrible. We’ll leave it to you to tell us whether it looks better now or before its renovation in 2014.
When Pennrose built Spencer’s Place, they weren’t able to include this property or the three lots immediately next door, for whatever reason. You can see in the images above, there were buildings at 3614 and 3616 Aspen St. until a little over a decade ago, while 3618 Aspen St. has been vacant for many years. All four of these lots sit at a higher grade than the rest of the block; we suspect that the whole block once sat higher up, but the excess height was eliminated when Pennrose built their homes. Now, not only will the vacant lot at 3618 Aspen St. get filled in, but the horrendous building at 3620 Aspen St. is in line for a replacement.
A developer called Future of Mantua LLC is pursuing a plan to build two quadplexes at this location and with the support of the Philadelphia Accelerator Fund, the project will be fully affordable. Hopefully that cooperative effort will extend to successfully collaborating with the Mural Arts program on a new mural on the side of the new building like we see in the rendering below. The project needed a host of variances, including for density, yard size, and a parking requirement. We’ve seen other subsidized housing projects delayed or even canceled as a result of at least partial opposition from the local RCO, but in this case the Mantua Civic Association strongly endorsed the project.
The higher grade for these properties could have posed a challenge, but the plans from ISA turned it into an advantage. Thanks to the slope, each unit will have its own front door, and even the bi-level units’ basement levels will avoid going too far below-grade. The design also allows for private outdoor space for each unit, including front yards, a rear patio, and rooftop decks. Notably, Susan Slawson, Commissioner of Philadelphia Parks and Recreation, wrote a letter in support of these new buildings, given their proximity to the rec center. Fortunately, the ZBA signed off on the project and we expect it will move forward sometime next year. So make sure you visit 3620 Aspen St. soon, as it’ll be a terribly ugly memory before you know it.